the Hudson River School

Asher Brown Durand (1796-1886)

Self Portrait
(borrowed from the Web)

Asher Brown Durand was the leading light of the Hudson River School of Landscape Painting in the mid nineteenth century. Along with Thomas Cole, these painters believed that Nature was a "manifestation of God" and rendered their oils directly from nature. They worked along the Hudson River valley, the Catskills and in the Adirondacks, the home of my childhood. I have always liked the paintings of this group of artists since encountering them in an Art History class in college. The post thunderstorm clouds from last night's weather events would have intrigued and inspired them.

The storm had passed to the east and was illuminated by the setting sun.